Artificial intelligence pioneer Andrew Ng today revealed what he has been working on since his high-profile exit from Chinese search giant Baidu Inc. earlier this year.

Ng (pictured), who had previously co-founded the Google Brain Project and online education giant Coursera Inc., announced the launch of a new startup called Landing.ai Inc. that will focus on helping manufacturers adopt machine learning. The first company that has come aboard is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., better known as Foxconn. The Taiwanese firm is one of Apple Inc.’s biggest production partners, and among other things it helps assemble Apple’s iPhone X models.

“Outside the IT industry, almost no companies have enough access to AI talent,” Ng wrote in a post on Medium. “Using AI to transform a company requires much more than training a few machine learning models. The strategy of integrating AI  —  everything from data acquisition, to organizational structure design, to figuring out how to prioritize AI projects  —  is as complex as the technology, and good AI strategists are even rarer than good AI technologists.”

Ng didn’t share any details about the collaboration with Foxconn other than that it has been going on since July. However, he did divulge that Landing.ai is “developing a wide range of AI transformation programs, from the introduction of new technologies, to reshaping organizational structure, to employee training, and more.”

AI technology, he said, has the potential to be especially helpful in manufacturing challenges such as variable quality and yield, inflexible production line design, capacity management and rising production costs. “AI can help address these issues, and improve quality control, shorten design cycles, remove supply-chain bottlenecks, reduce materials and energy waste and improve production yields,” he said.

Ng’s positioning of the company suggests the startup’s business model places a heavy emphasis on consulting. One of the first fruits of its efforts is a computer vision system that can identify defects in small electronic components and camera lenses as they move down a production line. Speaking to Reuters, Ng said that training the software takes as few as five sample images of flawed components rather than the thousands normally used for such computer vision projects.

Landing.ai is also exploring how AI can be used to automate the calibration of manufacturing equipment. Both of these projects could be of interest to Foxconn, which has been aggressively working to automate its factories.

The startup will initially focus on collaborating with manufacturers in China and Japan. The startup may very well expand into other segments in the long term, given the high interest in AI across traditional industries. It was only two days ago that Japanese heavy equipment maker Komatsu Ltd. teamed up with Nvidia Corp. to use AI for improving worker safety on construction sites.

Any large-scale market expansion push would likely see Landing.ai seek outside funding to support its efforts. Ng was cited by Reuters as saying that he has already been approached by investors, but hasn’t raised any capital yet.

Ng also addressed a longstanding concern of his and others’ about the potential for AI to eliminate jobs. “The next wave of manufacturing jobs will be very different than the previous one,” he said. “They be higher-level and higher paying, but also require new skills. Thus, they will require large-scale training or retraining.”

Landing.ai’s team is “uniquely equipped” to help, he said. Although he didn’t provide specifics, he said the company is “dedicating time and resources to creating retraining solutions for current or displaced workers” as well as “discussing the deployment of skills training programs with a variety of partners, including local governments.”

Image: Andrew Ng/Medium